Ancient Chinese curse: may you live in interesting times. This web site is my attempt to document, from my perspective, these "interesting times".

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Asking the right questions

Sometimes it requires being in the middle of the crap to best understand the
crap. Even the soldiers of America are only in Iraq for short while. It is not
their life. It is only their life right now.

But
for people like this, what is going on is their life and will remain
their life because it is where they live.

The entire world is shouting and asking, are Iraqis going to take a part
of the elections or no?
Wallahi I have headache because of times I was asked this question
Yes, of course I am for the elections, and for the participation and voting,
but not in this way! Not in this shallow and superficial way!
At the same time, I am against violence and preventing people from going to
elections.
The funny thing is that we face the same kind of question in post-war Iraq:
are you against or for saddam? Are you against or for the elections?
No one asks: what do you think about what is happening?
You always find yourself in a narrow space put by the person asking you!
And this is funny, because the world is not just Yes and No!
Life is full of options, and your answers are very rarely mere (Yes)s or (NO)s.
In a free world is a multi-optional world that gives us the space of
thinking and answering in a calm way.
Life is colourful, it is full of options and choices, and for a happy and
comfortable life all the colours should be there.

Faiza makes the point: the questions we are asked often restrict our ability
to answer. The questions have an agenda. The dishonest journalists ask questions
based on their concerns. The honest journalists ask questions based on the
concerns of the people they are questioning.